Beginning of the Year & Dot Day

I started on next week's lesson plans today and wrote down October. OCTOBER! I can't believe how this school year has flown by.

I quickly learned that as a librarian the beginning of school means going over procedures and rules....and saying it 12 times a day. As great as the activities were, by the 15th time I had done it for the kids I was done. Next year I'm doing different activities for different grade levels. Anyhow, orientation for the younger grades meant reading the book The Shelf Elf about library and book etiquette. I then created an activity using The Book Fairy Goddess' idea and Susan Pittman's supplies at Teacher Pay Teachers. Viola! The game "Would Ms. Pope approve?" was born. The kids loved it and I'm constantly referring back to it, so I'd say it's a keeper. Side note:  The Book Fairy Goddess has been the answer to my prayers. Her blog has helped keep me sane so far and her activities are the cutest! She also has her own store on Teacher Pay Teachers. I may as well give her every paycheck now!

For my older kids, I read The Library Dragon and had them do the scavenger hunt I bought from The Book Fairy Goddess. I loved that I could tweak the cards to work for my library. At first, I thought the 6th graders would just roll their eyes and laugh it off, but I think they really enjoyed it. It was a great refresher and I know they enjoyed getting up and moving.

Last week was Dot Day (September 15th, actually). honoring the amazing book The Dot. Since I see each class one day a week, I had all grade levels partake in Dot Week! Once again I borrowed from The Book Fairy Goddess and had my students work on various dot projects. I was so surprised to see just how creative the kids were. With only a dot on half a sheet of paper, I had KINDER babies drawing elaborate dinosaurs and clowns. It was AWESOME! I was shocked at how much fun they were having with crayons and a dot on a paper. I know there's not a whole lot of time to let kids be creative in the classroom due to the pressure of rigorous TEKS and testing, so it was nice to see the kids be kids for a bit. You'd be shocked at how many of them had a hard time understanding their dot could be whatever they wanted it to be:
Student: "...but what do I make?"
Me: "Whatever you want, it's your dot."
Student: "How many colors can I use?"
Me: "As many as you want."
Student: "How big does it have to be?"
Me: "As big as you want."
Student: "Do I have to fill the whole paper?"
Me: "Not if you don't want to."
I had various conversations like this all week. It was so hard for them to let go and realize they had no expectations.
Our library is covered with beautiful, student-made artwork now. This year was a good trial run but next year, I want to make Dot Day BIGGER and BETTER!

This week I'm doing Bluebonnet Books with my 3rd-6th graders and I'm SO excited! I can't wait to see the response from the kids!